Chapter 1 A New Beginning

A crack appeared in space, looking like a curved lens, and then the silver-white bow of the spacecraft Tortoise Rock Terrace emerged from the rift. After a moment, the spacecraft completely left hyperspace and hovered in a vast expanse of space.

And a strange star system appeared before Hao Ren.

The scale of this star system was enormous. An ancient yellow star illuminated a full twenty-two solid planets and three gas giants of amazing mass, and three of those twenty-two solid planets had obvious life signs, even clear signs of civilization. The Tortoise Rock Terrace, guided by the internal navigation signals of the Inspector, arrived above the planet located in the center of the sun—making it the most temperate of the three ecological planets. According to the navigation signals, Galazur and Anthony were on this planet waiting for everyone.

"We're leaving the ship in orbit," Hao Ren said, turning to look at the others. "Nolan, switch the antenna to the relay channel. Mimier, stay online at all times. After Nolan and Yggdrasil establish a connection, you need to finish the hailing before they run away."

As the oldest and largest pan-civilization circle in the First Galaxy, the territory of Chadnell was vast and complex. Inspector Anthony's influence in this star sector was widespread, but he couldn't openly display his identity everywhere. Just as Hao Ren needed to hide his true identity from civilizations that had not yet reached the assessment standards, Anthony J. Alfonse also maintained a mysterious presence in most of the kingdoms in this star sector, including the planet Hao Ren was looking at.

Inspector Anthony's identity on this planet was that of a powerful and mysterious reclusive sage.

So Hao Ren couldn't openly bring the ship down, but considering that this was Inspector's territory, there was no danger in everyone landing directly.

With Mimier staying in space, the Tortoise Rock Terrace used a space projection device to teleport everyone directly to the predetermined coordinates on the planet's surface. When the halo of teleportation dissipated, Hao Ren opened his eyes and found himself standing on a high mountain peak.

The endless mountains spread out before him, towering ancient trees growing wildly among the mountains, almost turning the entire mountain range into a sea of green. Visible green light swirled between the giant ancient trees, and a huge magical power containing a strong life force circulated in this forest, enough to invigorate the spirit even from a distance. Above this forest of life, a huge array of runes could be faintly seen slowly operating in the high blue sky. It was exquisite and magnificent, actually a giant barrier running directly near the stratosphere, completely protecting the entire jungle from the top of the sky to the ground.

In the depths of the endless dense forest, Hao Ren concentrated his attention and finally saw a city hidden among the shadowy trees... or rather, a kingdom. Many elegant and beautiful buildings were hidden among the jungle. Because the buildings themselves were the same color as the forest, coupled with the interference of the magical force field permeating the entire area, Hao Ren almost failed to notice the magnificent group of buildings at first glance.

Lily ran excitedly to a large rock not far away to climb up and look into the distance. After gazing for a moment, she ran back and circled around Hao Ren: "Landlord, landlord! Why hasn't anyone come to pick us up yet?"

"Wait a little longer, the reception should be here soon," Hao Ren waved his hand, casually saying as he curiously looked at the city in the distant forest, "The residents of this planet have protected their ecological environment pretty well... Well, it looks like a magical civilization?"

Before Hao Ren finished speaking, he saw a distorted curtain of light appear in the air in the distance, and then a huge golden dragon emerged from the curtain of light and flew straight in this direction.

It was Galazur coming to greet them.

The golden dragon was incredibly fast. With just a few gentle flaps of its wings, it had arrived at the top of the mountain where they were in an instant. The giant creature that blotted out the sky slowly landed, and Hao Ren and the others almost got blown off the mountain. After Galazur landed with a bang, Hao Ren went up to greet her: "Oh, long time no see—speaking of which, your appearance is always quite stylish."

"But not as stylish as your reputation," Galazur said jokingly, lowering her head gracefully. "Come on my back, I'll take you to see Anthony."

Hao Ren led a large group of people to climb onto Galazur's back, but after a few people climbed up, Lily began to complain: "Hey, isn't this a bit crowded?"

Vivian flapped her giant bat wings: "Forget it, I'll fly myself. It's a little embarrassing to have so many people riding on someone's back."

Galazur shook her head: "You don't have to be polite with me—just grab the bone plate behind my shoulder, there are two hang-on tickets over there."

Everyone: "..."

So the golden dragon not only had seated and standing tickets, but also hang-on tickets!

The group squeezed onto Galazur's back, and the Dragon Queen waved her wings, carrying the large group of people towards the kingdom hidden in the forest in the distance. Hao Ren specifically rode behind Galazur's neck so that he could shout and chat with her—although he could also use mental connection, he felt that this feeling of riding on a giant dragon and shouting to communicate was quite like a dragon knight.

The romance of men—why else would he usually only be a dog knight?

"What's that place down there? Looks pretty good!" Hao Ren shouted, pointing to the buildings in the forest below.

Galazur tilted her head slightly: "The Elven Empire of Grandia. This planet is a rare paradise in the Chadnell region—at least it's much quieter than those war zones that are in full swing. And because civilization declined earlier, the environment here has recovered well. I like to come here for vacation. Anthony also likes the scenery here, and he settled down here more than a hundred years ago."

The Dragon Queen turned and bypassed the central part of the elven city below, flying north along the giant wooden walls on the edge of the city. Her voice continued, "The elves are the most powerful race on this planet, but to be honest, they have begun to decline in the past two years, because the alliance of humans and demi-human races is rising in the southern continent. The elves' traditional magic has hidden disadvantages against the human alliance's arcane technology. We estimate that a certain degree of war will occur between the two sides in fifty to a hundred years, but as things stand, the relationship between humans and elves is not bad. By the way, Anthony is a human, but he has lived near the elven royal city for a long time. He is a powerful ancient human wizard here, and even the elves are in awe of his magic, so they let him settle near their royal city."

Galazur slowly slowed down and descended towards a cliff on the edge of the giant wooden wall.

"He lives under the Green Wood Cliff—well, he has some quirks, you'll see later."

Hao Ren's interest was piqued by Galazur's last sentence, but the Dragon Queen refused to say anything more. The group quickly found a landing field at the bottom of the lush cliff: a large open space, on which stood a stone-built, weathered spire of a mage tower.

After landing, Galazur transformed into a human and led the group towards the mage tower. Hao Ren noticed that the area around the mage tower was not completely empty: some small magical creations wandered around the open space, including unconscious arcane bodies like whirlwinds, strange life forms like small animals but covered in magic patterns, and many bouncing little devils. It might be dangerous for other wizards to summon little devils, but for an Inspector summoning little devils, they could only obediently act as servants.

When the little devils and magical creatures saw guests arriving, they immediately jumped up and swarmed forward, and all kinds of strange voices rang out at Hao Ren's feet: "Handsome guy, want a hotel?" "Beauty, want to buy some local specialties?" "Big brother, want a car wash... ah, you didn't drive?" "Hey, hey, you stepped on my foot!" "Damn you, you're a fire element, where did you get a foot?!" "Let me through, let me through, I haven't seen what the guests look like yet!" "Idiot, how can you see anything when you're inside a wind element!"

Hao Ren: "..."

Just as he was wondering if these noisy magical creatures were Anthony's "quirks" that Galazur was talking about, a heavy stone door at the bottom of the magic tower suddenly opened, and then a young man ran out of the tower as if escaping from disaster, shouting as he ran: "I can't do it anymore, I can't do it anymore! Teacher, please find someone else, please find someone else! I really can't stand it anymore!"

Hao Ren continued: "..."

What's going on now?